Batch File Programming

1 PrefaceThis book ' Batch File Programming ' is written after experimenting and testing all the snippets covered in this book. Batch File Programming is a pretty old one, but i have found lot of books that haven t covered the dark-side of the Batch , which still remains untold. The ultimate goal of this book is to make the readers understand how it works, what are the limitations of the Batch , what else is possible with a Batch , constructing useful programs with various views, Creating a Batch virus by mis-using the commands, creating a Batch file to an executable and lot more. This book is aimed at novice to advanced programmer, No matter if you are new to Programming , this would be the right drive to start with, since this book contains real time examples along with screenshots that really helps in a better understanding of the Edition May 2009 AcknowledgementsFirst and foremost I would like to thank my Mum and Dad for their constant care and blessings.

2 My Special thanks to Mr. C. Robinson (CEO, W3cert), for his kind encouragement in authoring this book more over I cannot forget to express my gratitude for my relatives and haven t seen him anywhere before, but it s my duty to owe my gratitude to him and he is none other than the Almighty God for the inspiration and guidance in all my successful Edition May 2009 Dedicated toThis Book is dedicated to W3 Cert and I hope the contents in this E-Book Batch File Programming will really help the students of W3 Cert for their exploration in Batch file Programming and interfering with the windows kernel by using the commands given in this Edition May 2009 This page is intentionally left blankBatch File Programming1 Batch File ProgrammingIntroductionBatch file Programming is the native Programming offered by the Microsoft Windows operating system .

3 Batch file is created using any text editors like notepad, WordPad, WinWord or so on, which comprises of a sequence of built-in commands used to perform some often done tasks like deleting a series of files of same type or of different type, creating logs, clearing unwanted craps from your computer and even for creating a Batch a Batch program is executed, it was interpreted line-by-line by the CLI (Command Line Interpreter) or the Batch file is really helpful in automating tedious tasks and for maintaining system logs. The commands used while creating a Batch file are case insensitive, in the sense that it may accept both small and upper case :There are two different modes that are supported by DOS ( disk operating system ), they were,1.

4 Interactive Batch Mode (Silent Mode).Interactive mode:In interactive mode, when a command is executed, it interacts with the user for input and depending upon the input supplied by the user, the further processes are carried out. For example, let stake the del del command is used for deleting files that reside inside a directory. Now I am going to delete all the files inside a folder named a , and when I executed the following command, it is interacting with me prompting Are you sure (Y/N)? , confirming the deletion operation, and depending upon my input, it decides what to do. If I hit Y then it will delete the files specified, else if I hit N then it won :\>del aC:\a\*, Are you sure (Y/N)?

5 YBatch Mode: Batch mode can also be referred as Silent mode or Quiet Mode , and this is mere opposite to the interactive mode. The command that operates at Batch mode will never interact with the user at any instance, instead it will take care of every operation by example, I am going to explain this by using the same del command. There is a switch available for the del command, which makes the command to operate at silent mode, and that switch is /Q C:\>del /Q aC:\>In this case, the command is not at all interacting with me, whether to delete those file or the above example, I have tried to delete the same files in the same folder by using the same command but with a different switch.

6 Anyhow both the commands will perform the same operation but the mode it operates differs. How to create a Batch Program:As said earlier, Batch programs can be written using any of the text editors such as notepad, wordpad and so on, but notepad is the most often used text editor in such cases. Like any other programing languages, lets start our first program with the Hello World Open up a notepad and type the following.@echo offEcho Hello Worldpause32. Save the file with any name you wish, but make sure that you save the file extension with .bat, in this case I am saving this file as .3. When you save the Batch file, then the icon becomes like the below icon,In Windows XP, the Batch file icon looks like above, where as in Windows Vista the Icon looks like the below image,4.

7 Just double click to execute the Batch file that you have created now. And the output looks like,5. You are done!Let me explain what does the above given program does, echo is the command used to print text on the screen, so whatever that follows the echo command will be displayed on the output screen. This command is just like the printf statement in the C you type the echo command alone, then it will tell you whether the echo is ON or echo is OFF . It s always recommended to turn the echo off, else it will display the prompts like (C:\>) and so on. In order to avoid the prompts being displayed, the echo is turned off by using the command @echo off or simply by using the echo off.

8 Echo Hello World will display the Hello World on the output screen, and the pause command is used to wait for the user interaction, whether to proceed further or not. If the pause is not used, then the Batch will terminate immediately after displaying the Hello World .4 Internal and External CommandsThere are two types of commands that we can run from a command prompt, and they were,1. Internal commands2. External CommandsInternal commands are nothing but the built-in commands that are shipped along with the operating system , for example, echo, cls, del, dir were few of the well known internal CommandsExternal commands are the commands that are often created while installing a new application and these commands mostly have no use except calling that application and support files.

9 Few external commands can only be executed in the Run dialog box (start Run), but not on the command prompt, and those commands include firefox . The firefox command can be executed only from the run line, that too if the firefox application is installed on that machine and it won t work on the command the firefox there are various other external commands such as the PsTools which includes commands like, PsExec, PsFile, PsGetSid, PsInfo, PsKill, PsList, PsLoggedOnand so Line commandsAs said earlier Batch file is comprised of sequence of run line commands, hence it s a must to know at least few useful run line commands for constructing a good Batch program. Here I am going to list out the useful run line commands with a brief ControlsaccwizAccessibility Servicecontrol admintoolsAdministrative ToolscleanmgrDisk Cleanup Utilitycontrol colorDisplay Management Consolecontrol foldersFolder OptionscliconfgSQL Client ManagercharmapCharacter MapchkdskCheck disk UtilityclipbrdClipboard ViewercalcOpens calculatorcmdOpens command ManagementdcomcnfgComponent ServicesddeshareDDE SharesdiskpartDisk Partition Propertiesdrwtsn32Dr.

10 X Control PaneldxdiagDirect X TroubleshootereudceditPrivate Character Viewer ( Maintaining system Logs )explorerOpens My DocumentsfreecellFreeCell GamefsquirtBluetooth Transfer Policy Hardware WizardiexpressIexpress Wizard (Package creator)iexploreInternet Explorer PropertiesipconfigWindows IP Users and GroupslogoffLogs out current usermagnifyOpen Magnifier7makecabCabinet Maker, file system Configuration UtilitymsheartsOpens Hearts gamemsinfo32 system InformationmspaintOpens MspaintmsmsgsWindows MessengermstscRemote and AudiomqbkupMessage Queue Backup\Restore UtilitynotepadOpens a New Storage Operator Setup WizardopenfilesUsed to view Files Opened Remotely via local share Data Source AdministratoroskOn Screen KeyboardproxycfgProxy configurationpackagerObject OptionspentntChecks for Floating point error in Intel based processorsqappsrvDisplays the available application terminal servers 8on the information about processesqwinstaDisplay information about Terminal SessionsrcpCopies files to and from computer running the RCP